Prologue:

Jor-El quickened his pace, as the world was about ready to come down onto them all, Brainiac had betrayed them, Zod had slaughtered countless, Kandor was gone, but there was only one last hope that Krypton could be saved, preserved, immediately.

There was a second where he grew panicked and started yelling.

"LARA!" Jor-El yelled as he quickened his pace. "LARA!"

His wife was not there and he was not sure how much he liked that. Then he started to look around and the true dread had come into his mind. His son, the heir of the legacy of the House of El, the last son ever born on Krypton, was completely gone. There was only a glowing blue crystal left in Kal-El's cradle.

Jor-El stepped forward, he had shown emotion, a scarce attribute for someone of his keen scientific mind but never the less he showed it. The crystal was very nearly in his hand as he scooped it up and held it with trembling hands.

The image appeared immediately, dark eyes, dark beard, dark robes, dark heart, he was there before him.

'Zod,' Jor-El thought as there was dread growing through his heart immediately.

"Good afternoon, Jor-El, my friend," Zod said as he spoke with a soft smoothness that went through his voice. "I'm sure you've wondered where your precious son is and your wife. Do not be alarmed, they are not harmed, at least not yet. I was only going to take your son, but I came to the conclusion that a mother and her son should not be separated, even at the end."

Jor-El's hand trembled as he looked at the escape pod that he prevented to send his son off of the planet, even at the end.

"I sympathize with you, Jor-El, I understand what it is like to lose my son and my wife, believe me, I know," Zod whispered in a harsh tone and that caused tingles to run down Jor-El's spine. He could hardly believe, there was a sickening lurch in the pit of his stomach. "You could have brought my son back Jor-El, you had the ability, but you refused to do so. After all that I've done for you, after I spoke to you in front of the council. You take my son away from me, I take your son away from you. It's only fair."

Jor-El knew that the ravages of war had made Zod rather unhinged.

"Although your evacuation plan leaves much to be desired," Zod said as he tutted. "So many things could go wrong with an escape pod on auto pilot. It could be misdirected, it could malfunction, your poor son could die upon entry, so much, so many variables. "

Jor-El could see the crystal towers dropping to the ground out of the corner of his eye but Zod was not done. Krypton crumbling around him was an apt metaphor.

"The Council will never find me, and they will never find your son and your wife, not that they do not have time, I should have known that you had alternate means of escape, but you were too stubborn to use it, or perhaps too prideful, perhaps you did not want to leave Krypton at the end," Zod said and Jor-El walked over, the one exit portal in his office, had been used and obviously set to destroy, so he could not follow where Zod went, even if he wanted to. "You do not leave the planet, that has spurned you, has called your genius eccentric. I admire your dedication Jor-El but it's a pity that no one would remember it. I will have the last laugh immediately, for when I leave Krypton."

Jor-El thought last laugh would have been perfect but he could see Zod's image on the crystal immediately.

"Come in, this is not a drill…..seismic vibrations…..towers cracking…"

Jor-El had no will to even answer, not that it would do him any good. He walked forward, he tried to use whatever time he had left to repair the portal.

He reached to pull a piece of tarp out of the way but he saw a pair of feet, part of a dismembered body that was sticking out from underneath the portal.

Jor-El felt sickened and bile rose to the top of his throat.

Spurts of fire shot up from underneath the ground. He wondered if one of his servants had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Once the towers started falling, he sent them all home, to say their final goodbyes to their loved ones, knowing that this was it. Did any of them make it home?

Jor-El could not move the portal on his own and the roof began to cave in, as his lab tipped over.

The planet began to crack open and Jor-El knew that if the planet was going to blow, it was going to be a mercy killing.

"ZOD!" Jor-El yelled as the crystal slid away but Zod's insidious laughter could be heard. The scientist could not believe this, he could see the ship, the AI that was made to guide his son to his destiny, none of it would ever make it off of the planet.

Jor-El tried in vain one last time to repair the portal but all of the power in his lab shorted out.

Failure was an extremely powerful emotion and Jor-El felt that one a hundred fold. His son and wife could be anywhere in the universe right now and it was not like they would ever know.

Krypton knew no more as the planet exploded. There were no survivors.

Lara Lor-Van kneeled in the middle of the field, dressed in white robes that were blood stained, as she clutched a twisted dagger in her hand. The winds were calm and she felt herself stranded in the middle of nowhere.

The blonde staggered, as her injuries were fairly nasty but she had to press on.

She was too afraid to move, this wasn't Krypton, and where was her son?

She had to find him.

General Dru-Zod managed to escape with injuries, but he knew when the sun came up, he would be healed. He would be a god on this petulant backwater and all would kneel before him. He could solve all of the world's problems and he would groom the son of Jor-El in his image, it was a win-win situation.

It was a violent struggle between Lara and Zod, and both of them were separated somehow. Along with the child, and Zod was not going to let him get away that easily.

The bundle lied outside of a doorstep in the middle of a mansion in New York City. There was a figure that had heard a disturbance and had walked out to investigate.

Her black hair was silky and dark as the midnight. She wore a black corset that stretched around her ample breasts, and thigh high black boots that added to her appeal. She looked down at the child, at first she intended to dismiss it.

Then she noticed something, she sensed something within it, perhaps she should not dismiss it so readily. There was potential, there was power.

When one was the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club, an organization who did not adhere to the morals of common society, they took over opportunity imaginable.

Selene Gallio, the Black Queen, smiled. She had lived long enough to know that a child did not just randomly fall out of the sky, not without a reason, and not without significance.

She scooped up the bundle with the child and brought him inside. This presented a perfect opportunity.

To Be Continued.